_James Sherley in England to the New Plymouth Colony_: Most worthy and loving Friends, Some of your letters I received in July, and some since through Mr. Pierce; but till our main business, the patent, was granted, I could not settle my mind or pen to writing. Mr. Allerton was so turmoiled about it, that I neither would nor could have undertaken it, if I had been paid a thousand pounds; but the Lord so blessed his labours that he obtained the love and favour of important men of repute and position. He got granted from the Earl of Warwick and Sir Ferdinand Gorges all that Mr. Winslow desired in his letters to me, and more besides, which I leave him to relate. Then he sued to the king to confirm their grant, and to make you a corporation, and so to enable you to make and execute laws as freely as the government of Massachusetts. This the king graciously granted, referring it to the Lord Keeper to give order to the solicitor to draw it up, if there were a precedent for it. So the Lord Keeper furthered it all he could, and also the solicitor; but as Festus said to Paul: With no small sum of money obtained I this freedom. For, by the way, many riddles had to be solved, and many locks must be opened with the silver, nay, the golden key! Then it came to the Lord Treasurer, to have his warrant for making you custom-free for a certain time; but he would not do it, and referred it to the Council Table. And there Mr. Allerton attended day by day, when they sat, but could not get his petition read; and as Mr. Pierce was waiting with all the passengers at Bristol, he was forced to leave the further prosecution of it to a solicitor. But there is no fear nor doubt but that it will be granted,—for the chief of them are friendly; but he should certainly return by the first ship that comes, for if you had this confirmed, you would be in a position to govern with the power befitting your rank and the position God has called you to, and to stop the mouths of the base and scurrilous individuals who are ready to question and threaten you in every action. Besides, if you are freed of customs dues for seven years inward and twenty-one outward, the expense of the patent will be soon covered; and there is no doubt of ultimately obtaining it. But such things must work by degrees,—they cannot be hastened; so we (I write on behalf of all our partners here) beg you to urge Mr. Allerton to come, and his wife to spare him this one year more, to finish this important business, which will be so much for your good, and I hope for that of your posterity for many generations to come.